Chapter Sixteen
It was hard to think straight. Jane’s body was too hot. Her skin too tight. And her mind…
Hunger. Need. Blood.
She could taste blood on her tongue. The flavor was rich and oddly sweet. And…and Jane feared it was…his.
Everything was cloudy. Her thoughts were in chaos. She’d been in an alley. She thought she had, anyway. Aidan had been there. She’d…bit him?
Had she killed him?
“Jane.” It was that voice again. The annoying one that kept bossing her around.
“Jane, you need to feed.”
The fangs in her mouth—the ones that were fully extended and burning—told her that he was right. But… “Leave me alone.” Her voice was a rasp. So weak and broken. That was how she felt.
Every part of her seemed broken.
Did I kill Aidan? Her—her fangs had been in his throat. But…he’d shifted, hadn’t he?
“Stop moping.” The annoying voice came once more. The vampire’s voice. “Your werewolf is still alive, though I think he’d like nothing more than to tear us both apart.”
At those words, Jane’s lashes lifted. The vampire—Vincent—stood just a few feet in front of her. It was dim all around them, and the place smelled a bit dank. Mildew hung in the air, the scent had her nose twitching.
“Are you in control?” Vincent asked her.
“Fuck off.”
He nodded. “That sounds relatively in control.” His gaze slid over her and he winced. “Sorry about all the manacles. I’m totally not into bondage, but until I see how you’re going to react to this whole new vamp life you’ve got going on, they seem like a good idea.”
Because the bastard had her chained up. Both of her wrists were locked in heavy, metal cuffs above her head. Her feet were chained up, too. She stood against a wall, trapped. At his mercy.
Her day was truly shit. Or was it night now? She had no clue.
“I think this place used to be an old BDSM club,” Vincent explained to her, as if they were having a friendly little chat. “When I came to town, I bought it and made a few quick modifications.”
“Because you knew…you were going…to change…me…” Speaking was so hard. Each word left her throat feeling raw.
Vincent shook his head. “I knew you would change. It was meant to be. Even your voodoo queen saw it, didn’t she?”
Don’t be the hero. Just…don’t be. Annette’s words played through her mind, like a song stuck on repeat.
“She saw it,” Vincent continued, “but even the famed Annette Benoit couldn’t change anything.”
“You…did…this…” Her voice didn’t even sound human. More like an animal’s. Her stomach was knotted and her whole body hurt.
“You were choking on your own blood, Jane. You were dead, your body was just still suffering. I ended your pain.”
You broke my neck. I remember that part, you asshole.
“I am not the enemy.” Vincent took a step closer to her. His eyes drifted over her face. “You need to realize that. I am your one friend in this world. I can help you.”
She closed her eyes. The bloodlust was building inside of her again. Nearly uncontrollable. Her fangs shoved against her lips. Her throat was parched.
Want. I need…
“You attacked Aidan. Do you remember that?” Vincent asked her.
Shame twisted around her heart.
“And he tried to kill you.”
A tear leaked from her eye. She felt it slide down her cheek.
Vincent sighed. “You have to stay away from him, or he will kill you. You and I need to leave town. As soon as you’re strong enough, we’ll be out of here. Hell, we’ll leave the freaking country, just to be safe. He won’t get you. I’ll keep you safe.”
She didn’t want to be safe. She wanted her old life back. She wanted Aidan.
“Jane.” Her name came from him, hard and demanding. “Jane, I am not the enemy. I came here to help you because I knew the change was coming. You don’t have to be a monster. You have vampires all wrong. You don’t have to be evil.”
Tell that to the vampire who killed my family. Tell it to my father, tell—
“Even your father eventually regained his humanity. How do you think you escaped that vampire attack when you were eleven? When your worthless excuse for a brother saved himself first and you were struggling to get out of that little window in the basement?”
How did Vincent know about that?
“Your father came to your rescue. He gave his life so that you could escape, not that I expect you to remember that, of course. You probably didn’t even look back. I don’t blame you. You just wanted to run, right? To escape?”
Her eyes squeezed closed even tighter. Stop talking.
“After the initial change, I won’t lie…being a vampire is brutal. Especially for humans who are made into vamps, the ones that needed the transfusion for the change to occur in their bodies. The bloodlust overwhelms them. It’s all they know. But for you and me…we were born to be this way. We were never really human—that is the part that was the lie about us. We were always meant to be vampires.”
Don’t look at him. Don’t.
Her body jerked because the hunger was twisting through her.
“Some vampires go mad with their power. They exist to torture. To kill. To destroy.”
She didn’t want to be like that. But already, Jane could feel her humanity sliding away. Need blood. Need it.
“You won’t be this way,” Vincent said, as if he were making a promise to her. “I won’t let you make the same mistakes I did.” His voice was grim. “You will be the end. Just like you were supposed to be…only they’re wrong about how that end will come. You’ll change everything for the vampires. I know you can do it. I know it.”
He knew nothing.
Her lashes slowly lifted. “Blood.” It was all she could manage. So guttural. So…desperate.
He nodded. Then he…he lifted up what looked like a plastic bag, one that was filled with red liquid. “I’ve got all the blood you need, right here.”
Bagged. Not from a person. Somewhere deep inside, joy burst through Jane. She wasn’t going to feed from a person. She could just take the blood bags! She wouldn’t be a monster! She wouldn’t!
He ripped open the bag. “Open wide, Jane.” Vincent was smiling. Looking happy…or as happy as a vamp could look.
She opened her mouth. He lifted up the bag and blood poured past her lips, over her tongue, down her throat. That terrible, twisted need she had felt moments before began to lessen as she gorged herself and then—
Jane vomited. The blood all came back up—and landed right on Vincent.
And in a very dim part of her mind, Jane thought…Serves you right, asshole. That’s what you get for killing me.
Vincent wiped the blood vomit from his eyes. “We may need to try something else.”
The bloodlust grew again, even stronger than before. She snapped at him with her teeth because his throat suddenly looked way too appealing.
Vincent hurriedly stepped back. “We definitely need to try something else.”
***
“Where is Jane?” Aidan asked Annette as he stood in her shop, in the private back room. Paris was right behind him. Garrison lurked in the shadows, poking at the objects on her shelf. Garrison had been trying to sneak his little ass out of town, but Aidan had stopped him. Pack didn’t run. Pack stayed together.
No matter what.
He knew Garrison was afraid of having to hurt Jane…Join the fucking club. That was why they were all there with Annette. Because there has to be another option. We can’t kill Jane.
Annette sat at the small table she used for her scrying work, and her gaze was on the mirror before her. To Aidan, the mirror looked completely black, but he knew that Annette saw…things…in that dark surface.
See Jane.
Annette smoothed back her hair. “How did your beast react to her?”
“Can’t you see for yourself?” He snapped. “Isn’t it all right there in that fucking glass?”
She looked up at him.
Paris put his hand on Aidan’s shoulder. “Easy.”
Aidan’s lip curled in a snarl. “There is nothing easy about this situation.” It was a fucking nightmare. “I lost my Jane.”
“And now…” Annette murmured, her face sad. “You think she will attack you…turn on you…the same way that your mother did.”
His teeth ground together. “Isn’t that what vampires do?”
Her gaze searched his. “Jane is not your mother. You are not your father.”
That wasn’t an answer to his question.
“How did your beast react to her?” Annette asked again. Aidan just stared at her. Annette’s fist slammed down on the table, making the scrying mirror bounce. “Dammit, I don’t see what happened, Aidan! That’s why I’m asking! Now stop being a dick and tell me!”
Silence.
Garrison cleared his throat. “You shouldn’t call the alpha a dick.”
“Then he shouldn’t be one,” Annette snapped right back. “Look, I get this is hard.”
Aidan laughed. “Hard doesn’t cover it.” She wanted to know? Fine. “Jane went for my throat and my beast went for her. I shifted before I could stop myself and if Vincent hadn’t vanished with her.” Fucking parlor trick that I still don’t understand. “If he hadn’t vanished, I would have killed them both.” It was a truth that made him sick.
Killed…Jane.
His hands fisted. “I don’t want this.”
“Guilt can be a terrible monster to carry,” she said, her voice softening. “I’m sorry.”
“I did this to her. If I’d moved faster, if I hadn’t brought in her bastard of a brother…”
Annette shook her head. “Fate can’t be changed. Jane was born to be a vampire.”
“Fuck fate. Jane was born to be mine.”
Her brow furrowed at his words, and Annette leaned over her mirror once more. “Yes,” she said, voice a bit dazed. “I think she was.”
And her brother is a dead man. I’ve already got a call in to Vivian’s office…I want access to that prisoner. Drew Hart was in intensive care at the local hospital, under constant police protection. Once Aidan spoke with Vivian, that protection would vanish. Drew would die.
A life for a life.
Why the hell hasn’t Vivian called me back already? He’d put her in that position as police captain for two reasons. One—Vivian was fucking fantastic at the job. And two—she was a werewolf who’d always been loyal to the pack. He could always count on her to do what he needed.
Only Vivian hasn’t called me…
“There are other threats out there,” Annette said and her words were way too close to Vincent’s for Aidan’s comfort. “Others you need to face before you see Jane.”
He knew where this was going. “The other alpha.” The sonofabitch who was killing in Aidan’s territory.
Annette nodded. “You think he won’t have the same urge that you do? When confronted by not one, but two vampires, his primal instincts will overwhelm him. He’ll attack. He’ll destroy Jane.”
Aidan’s chest was ice cold.
“But I suppose that’s what you want,” Annette mused silkily. “For her to just be…gone.”
Aidan shot to his feet. “I want her back. I want my Jane back.” His throat seemed to throb where she’d bit him. “I want her in my arms. In my bed. In my life.” Then he had to say the truth that tore him apart. “But my beast wants her dead.”
Annette turned her hand so that it faced him, palm up. “Give me your blood so I can see…”
He gave her his hand. She sliced across his palm with her knife and as the blood dripped onto her mirror, he saw Jane.
Jane and blood. The two would always be bound together in his mind.
***
“Jane.”
She hung limply in her chains. Every part of her body hurt. Her lips and tongue were so swollen. The thirst wouldn’t end. It was ripping her apart. She wanted to feed so badly. So. Badly. She’d do anything to stop that terrible hunger. Anything.
Then a smell hit her. Light. Sweet. Intoxicating.
Her eyes flew open.
Vincent stood a few feet away. A woman with dark red hair was before him and…blood trickled down the woman’s throat.
“I think the problem,” Vincent said, “is that you need live prey.”
Jane shook her head. No. No. Stay away.
The woman’s eyes were dazed, unfocused. Was she drugged?
Vincent pushed his victim—no, my victim—forward. “Does her blood smell good, Jane?”
Damn him. Yes.
“Are you hurting, Jane?”
I’m being ripped apart. But I deserve the pain. I—
“Take a few sips of her blood and the pain will stop.”
Jane shook her head. “S-stay away…” It was all she could manage. Barely a whisper.
Vincent’s face tightened. “The longer you delay, the more powerful the bloodlust becomes. Soon you won’t be able to control yourself at all. You’ll attack everyone in your path. You’ll be beyond thought. Beyond control. That’s why so many new vampires go on their bloody rampages. That’s why Aidan’s mother couldn’t be stopped.”
Aidan’s…mother?
“She tried not to feed. She held out too long. She’d starved herself, refusing to eat at all, going weeks…until she was only a shell. She lost herself completely. She turned on the ones closest to her. She destroyed them. Took all of her family in that bloodlust, and only Aidan escaped.”
Tears were pouring down her cheeks now. Aidan hadn’t told her. He hadn’t said…
Paris tried to warn me. He’d told her to ask Aidan about his family, but she hadn’t. All that time, Aidan had been with her, and he’d known…he’d realized just what would happen to her in the end.
Because I am like his mother.
But…but he’d loved Jane anyway. Despite the hell he knew would come.
“Drink from her, Jane,” Vincent urged. His voice was a dark temptation. “You don’t have to be a monster. If you get the bloodlust under control, you’ll be okay. I will help you. Guide you.”
Her tongue swiped over the tip of one fang and…
Bam.
Bam.
Bam.
What was that sound? That terrible banging? Jane’s gaze darted to the woman’s neck and she saw the pulse racing at the base of her throat.
Bam.
Bam.
Bam.
Oh, sweet Jesus, she could hear the woman’s heart beating. And that beat called to Jane.
“I won’t let you kill her, Jane. I promise, I won’t. I’ll stop you after just a few sips.”
Jane’s hands jerked in the restraints. Her wrists were already raw and bloody. She was wearing just a coat—Aidan’s coat. His scent was all around her.
I need him.
Just thinking of him made her bloodlust grow even stronger. Her mouth opened.
“I won’t let you kill her,” Vincent promised. “But I will make you drink from her.” And he lunged forward. One hand grabbed Jane’s head and he shoved it against the woman’s bloody throat. And his other hand held the woman there, trapped against Jane.
No, no, she didn’t want to do this!
But the woman’s blood touched her lips.
There was no going back. Jane opened her mouth wide. Her fangs sank into the woman’s throat even as Jane mentally shouted…No! Run away! Run away! I’m so sorry! I can’t stop! I can’t!
The blood flowed over Jane’s tongue. Unlike the bagged blood, this was warm. Hot. Seeming to burst with life and flavor and—
Jane shoved the woman back. “Wrong,” she rasped.
“No!” Vincent shouted. “It’s not wrong!” He tossed the woman aside and grabbed Jane by her shoulders. “It’s your nature! It’s—”
She vomited the fresh blood on him.
He stiffened.
Her stomach cramped. The hunger nearly tore her apart but…
I can’t keep the blood down! Didn’t he see? Something was very, very wrong.
Once more, Vincent wiped the blood vomit from his eyes. His expression had turned pensive. The woman sobbed behind him.
“You’re right,” Vincent finally said. “Something is wrong.”
***
“Before she…” Aidan stopped and cleared his throat. Annette was swirling his blood over the surface of her mirror. And he was still breaking apart on the inside.
I have to keep it together a little longer. My pack needs me.
“Before she was killed, Jane…Jane had just discovered a lead on the other alpha.” He rubbed his neck, then stopped when he felt the tender skin that had been left from Jane’s bite. “She suspected a college student, some punk named Quint Laurel.”
When he said the name, Annette nodded, as if something had just been confirmed for her. Then she told Aidan, “He has one of your pack.”
“What?” The sharp question came from Paris. “Who? Who does the bastard have?”
Annette’s fingers stilled on the mirror. “The woman of power. The captain. He has her, and he’s going to kill her soon.”
Fucking hell. Aidan had been so caught up in Jane—
That I let down my pack.
“He doesn’t even understand what he is. A lost boy…turned into a savage beast. Without guidance, that’s what happens. An orphan, he came to this town, not knowing, not understanding…and then changing.”
Garrison whistled. “Alphas change at twenty-one. If the guy didn’t understand what he was…and all of a sudden he shifted…it’s a wonder that he didn’t lose his mind.”
“Maybe he did lose it,” Paris said as he paced nearby. “That would explain his kills.”
Annette’s head lifted and her eyes seemed to stare right through Aidan. “He had no guidance. It can make all the difference.”
Did she think he was going to guide the punk? “Screw guidance. It’s too little, too late for that. The guy is a killer, and I’m stopping him.” His wolf was eager for the battle. All the rage and fear that Aidan had inside…it was going to burst free. He’d shift and give his beast full reign.
A blood battle. To the death. It was the only way for alphas to fight.
“Do you see him?” Aidan asked Annette.
She nodded. “I see him now because he wants to be seen. He wants the whole world to know what he is. That desire is practically pouring from his cells. It’s why he’s killed. Why he hunts. The world should know his power.”
“Where.” Not a question, a demand.
“With the dead, of course.”
So the killer had gone back to his playground in the cemetery. Aidan whirled away.
“Aidan…will you kill her?” Annette called after him, her question hesitant.
“I’m not going after Jane right now,” he said, not looking back at her. One crisis at a time.
“No…” Annette’s voice was sad.
Paris hurried to follow behind him. Garrison closed in, too.
I’m not going after Jane. I’m going to kill a werewolf bastard who made the mistake of killing in my town.
As for my Jane…I need her to stay away from my wolf.
Far away.
***
The door closed behind the werewolves as they rushed out of her shop. Annette’s shoulders fell. “No,” she said softly, pained to her core, “you aren’t going after her…but Jane will find you.”
She could see it in the blood.
So much blood.
***
“Aidan, stop!” Paris yelled.
Aidan swung around, snarling. “I don’t have time to waste—”
“No, but I have something…something that might help us. It caught my eye when I saw Garrison nosing around Annette’s shelves.” His hand opened, revealing a vial. “I figured if this was strong enough to knock you out…then maybe—”
“I’m not interested in knocking out the other alpha. I’m interested in kicking his ass.” He spun around. His prey waited.
“Wasn’t talking about him,” Paris mused. “I was thinking of someone else that you may not want to kill.”
Now Aidan did pause.
“I’ve got a few extra syringes. I picked them up, when, you know, I was planning to knock your ass out.”
Aidan growled.
“Better to be safe, right?” Paris pushed. “You want the vial or not?”
Aidan considered it. He knew what Paris meant…his friend was giving him the option of knocking out Jane if their paths crossed. Knocking her out and not killing her. His jaw locked as he said, “You keep it.”
“Aidan—”
“You, Paris.” He looked back. “And when the time is right, you’ll know what to do.” Maybe you’ll use it on Jane. Maybe you’ll use it on me.
Or maybe…maybe you’ll just watch us destroy each other.